Anticpation "or" Dang Long Time til Wapiti

Oh my word!! This year is just draggin, for cryin out loud!!

Every year, my huntin' partners and I fill out these confounded controlled hunt applications. We get our copies of the huntin' regulations, Oregon calls it a synopsis. Then we study the thing and try to figure out how on earth to fill out our applications in a manner that will, God willin', get us Elk tags for the upcoming season. We have this one special spot, and NO I'm not gonna spill the beans about it, that we're shootin' for every year, but it is one tough son of a gun to draw. The last time we had good fortune shine on us was 2003. Now for Pete's sake, that is now 6 long, long years.

What makes this so downright irritating is that back when shep was a pup (that means a long while ago), we could just go down to the local sportin' goods store and buy our tag and hunt just about anywhere we dang pleased. Not now!! There's this preference point system that gives you another point every time you are unlucky. It's like winnin' cause you lost. The more you lose, the more points you get, and eventually, or so the story goes, you get to hunt where you want to.

Well, for 5 straight years we have been winning, or is that losing? I'm not sure how to look at this thing called "preference points". I mean really, if I have a preference, it's not to be messin' with points unless I'm counting them on a bull's rack. Enduring, yes I said enduring, 5 years of of "winning" has gloriously come to an end. We have lost all of our preference points, they are all gone. We drew that tag, that beautiful, wonderful tag. We are headed back to our favorite haunt to pursue the mighty bull of the woods in ________. Now you didn't really think I was gonna tell ya where did ya?

So here's the thing. We applied for this tag May 15. We patiently, well not very patiently, wait until mid June to find out the results. Then, having heard the fantastic news, we now have to wait and wait and wait until the end of October before we can finally be in the woods. So in the meantime, we plan and we plan and we search for that new piece of gear that we are just certain we cannot make it through another season without.

We'll continue emailing each other weekly if not more often with silly emails like; "wapiti, wapiti,wapiti" and "the elk are where you find em" or "it's just 17 weeks until Elk season". We seem to be acting very strangely, very strangely indeed. Our families and friends are beginning to wonder if we are completely certifiable or just plain ole nuts! Our thoughts drift off to mountain and meadow, to stream and wallow, to trails and rocks, to Bulls and, well, Bulls. Our evenings are spent pouring over "Bugle" magazine and reading short stories by Jim Zumbo (our hero). It is only July, and I fear that by late August there will be a very serious need to begin a new chapter of Elkaholic Anonymous. There will likely need to be an intervention as well, and maybe even the reading of a self-help book or two.

This Elk camp can not come along too soon. We will be ready, we will be lean, mean, Elk huntin' machines. Our minds and bodies will be fit and prepared to encounter the wilds and successfully bring meaning to the ceremonial hanging of the meat pole, which cannot be done without the ceremonial meat pole dance. Brad always leads the dance. He is a dancin fool, even performs a nightly snow dance until the flakes begin to fall, but that is a tale to be told at a later date.

Anxious, yeah I'd say so. This is the year, the year of the "Any Bull" hunt. This is the year we have been hoping for, praying for, searching for and yearning for. And it is still three plus months away. Will we survive until Elk camp? We'd better, cause, well, this is the year!!